Is There Anything That's Worth More?
by Charadrius
Summary: "All life is precious and worth protecting." While hanging out in Beach City, Steven comes across David Attenborough and joins the famous naturalist on a mission to save a special bird. In honor of Attenborough's 90th Birthday!
_Hope you all enjoy this short little tale!_

The rays of the sun reflected beautifully on the seashore waters near Beach City. It was spring, and Steven was playfully running along the beach with a bucket and shovel in hand. He hoped to make some sandcastles to impress the gems.

"Oh man! This is gonna be my biggest castle yet!" Steven cheered to himself, "maybe big enough for everyone to fit inside it!"

His train-of-thought was cut short upon the realization that he wasn't alone on the beach today.

Steven stopped to find that several feet away was what appeared to be an elderly man with a blue, button-up shirt and tan pants. The man was looking through some binoculars over the waters of the beach, and he was just out of reach of the tide.

Curious, Steven walked up to the man and tugged on his shirt a little. "Excuse me" he said.

The man shifted his focus from the binoculars down to the little boy who had spoken to him. "Oh! Hello young man! What can I do for you?" the man said, gently.

"I couldn't help but notice, I've never seen you around Beach City before!" Steven replied cheerfully, always excited to meet new people.

"You'd be correct! I'm not from here, I'm just visiting and figured I'd take a little nature walk." The man smiled.

"My name's Steven. Steven Universe!" The boy introduced, extending a hand.

"David Attenborough. Charmed to meet you Steven." David returned the handshake, "The seashore is absolutely exquisite."

Steven chuckled, "yeah, I love this beach! What were you looking for?"

"Red knots." Attenborough responded, again peering through his binoculars.

Steven was slightly confused, "like colored rope?"

"Ha ha! No child, red knots are birds. Sea birds." Attenborough cleared up, "They're a very special species."

"How so?" Steven asked, and the two sat down near the beach.

Attenborough, naturally, grew excited as he explained. "Well Steven, red knots spend the winter in Brazil, all the way in South America! Then, flying as fast as they can, they travel all the way up the Atlantic Ocean so that they can spend the summer in the Arctic. Now, it just so happens that this beach is their last stop on their travels, they come here to rest and to feed."

"Wow! I don't think I've ever noticed any before." Steven scratched his chin, "What do they look like?"

"Oh they have an orange underbelly with a tannish head and wings, all decorated with black spots. They're not very big." Attenborough described, using his hands excitedly, "alas, you've probably never noticed them before because they only arrive for a short time during their travels. They're not here for long."

"In fact," Attenborough continued, "if my research is correct, they should've been here by now. But I've not yet been able to find a single one."

"Where do you think they are?" Steven asked.

"That's just it. Their only source of food on this beach is the eggs of horseshoe crabs. And I haven't been able to find any of them either." Attenborough stood back up, giving Steven a hand.

"So the birds need the crabs! It's like a relationship!" Steven smiled, with stars in his eyes.

"Exactly!" Attenborough replied, "While the birds will eat a lot of the eggs, it's never enough to completely wipe out the population of horseshoe crabs, and they help keep the marine arthropods in check, so that they in turn do not overeat their neighbors. But if the horseshoe crabs are not able to breed, then there will be no food source for the birds to eat. And red knots are an endangered species! This last stop is their "make or break" period, and if they're not able to feed, they'll soon perish, and we may lose them forever."

Steven firmly believed (like his mother) that all life was precious and worth protecting. He'd hate to see these birds go extinct, and as a Crystal Gem, he'd view it as a personal failure to himself and his family.

"I want to help you. I want to find out what's keeping the horseshoe crabs and the red knots from coming to the beach and try to fix it." Steven offered, to which Attenborough grinned happily. "That's a wonderful gesture. Thank you very much Steven."

To two slowly set off along the coast, as Steven overturned any and all beach rocks he could find. David Attenborough continued searching with his binoculars, and would occasionally point out a peculiar seashore species to Steven.

Eventually, Steven stumbled across a small half-moon-shaped creature with a sharp tail and small eyes.

"Hey! I found a crab!" Steven exclaimed, causing Attenborough to quickly walk over. The man was very happy.

"Excellent work Steven! This is a beautiful specimen." Attenborough gently picked up the animal and observed it. Something was off: the animal was missing a few legs, and the underside had some peculiar white-spots.

"Oh dear, this crab appears to be sick." Attenborough sadly proclaimed, before carefully letting the animal go to its original spot.

"Aww man, that's awful! Why would it be sick?" Steven frowned.

Attenborough looked behind Steven and discovered several heaping piles of trash, scattered all over the beach. Several bags were leaking out and there were a few dead horseshoe crabs as well.

"Something tells me that's the cause." Attenborough pointed outward, causing Steven to turn and gasp.

"What?! Who did this? I've never seen this much trash here before!" Steven exclaimed, surveying everything.

"Beach pollution is a pretty common occurrence near cities like this, I'm afraid. Sometimes it's inescapable." Attenborough explained, slightly sad. "It seems to be preventing the horseshoe crabs from breeding."

"Well not if I can help it!" Steven said, determined. "I'll be right back! I know some people who can help!"

Steven ran off and within a few minutes returned with the other Crystal Gems.

"Mr. Attenborough, let me introduce you to the Crystal Gems! That's Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot. They're my family." Steven introduced, overly enthusiastic.

"Greetings everyone, it's a pleasure to meet such esteemed beings like yourselves." David Attenborough bowed, before shaking hands with everyone.

"We came as soon as we could." Garnet replied.

"Steven says this trash is preventing the normal flow of nature." Pearl

"He would be correct. Steven has been very observant of the situation at hand, and is a charming young man," Attenborough spoke, causing Steven to blush.

"These… birds… are endangered, you say?" Peridot asked. "What does that mean?"

"Endangered species are those that are at risk of extinction in the near future, often due to human activity. It seems as a species, human beings are well known for not being the best "roommates" to other creatures." Attenborough explained, chuckling.

"Well then, as a newly instated Crystal Gem, it would be of disservice to the cause to stand by as these birds go extinct. We're here to help." Peridot spoke.

"Excellent! You don't know how happy this makes me." Attenborough beamed.

"Let's get to work!" Steven cheered.

Over the course of a half hour, Steven, Attenborough, and the other Crystal Gems worked to clean up the beach. Attenborough sifted through the water and removed as many trash particles as he could, while most of the gems used their bubbles to remove the larger pieces all together (Amethyst simply ate the trash she found). Soon, there was not a single pile of garbage, and the beach was clean as ever.

"Fantastic work everyone! Hopefully our actions have been enough to set things right." Attenborough congratulated, giving a high-five to Steven.

Sure enough, within minutes they were able to spot a few horseshoe crabs crawling up onto the beach. They had begun to lay patches of green, pea-like eggs. More and more appeared, and soon the shore was swarming with horseshoe crabs. Everyone was amazed at the sight.

"I've never seen so many!" Steven exclaimed.

Then, a familiar bird landed on the shore. "Is that a red knot?" Steven pointed excitedly, to which Attenborough replied with a nod, "indeed! Extraordinary!"

In no time, the enormous flock of migrating red knots descended onto the beach and they began to gobble up the eggs of the horseshoe crabs. Such an enormous display of wildlife attracted several of the Beach City residents.

"So, how much do these birds eat?" Pearl asked.

"Well, remarkably, the red knots are near to starvation when they arrive at the beach, and they must consume more than double their body weight if they are to survive." Attenborough described, watching the birds happily.

"Sounds like my kind of animal." Amethyst snickered.

David Attenborough turned to Steven and the gems as the spectacle continued. "I cannot thank you all enough for your selfless act of heroism. Especially you Steven: because you cared about these birds, you have ensured the survival of the entire population of the red knots. I wish more people were like you."

"You're welcome Mr. Attenborough! All life is precious, and worth protecting." Steven smiled.

…

Later that evening, long after all the birds moved on to their Arctic home for the summer, the Crystal Gems invited David Attenborough to stay for dinner… well, it was Steven mostly. The two shared delicious sandwiches and doughnuts and told each other about their favorite adventures. Partly because he felt the voters would appreciate him more, Mayor Dewey made sure that particular spot on the beach was a protected area, to ensure that the birds and crabs would come every year. This made everyone extremely happy.

Eventually, David Attenborough had to leave, but not before meeting Steven's lion, whom he simply adored.

 _The End!_


End file.
